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Amanda Waller
Amanda Waller is a senior high-ranking US government official and the Director of A.R.G.U.S. as well as the commanding officer of Task Force X, while having ties to several other espionage and law enforcement agencies. Biography Early Life Amanda Waller at some point became the Director of A.R.G.U.S. and swiftly built up a fearsome reputation for herself, being nicknamed "The Wall" due to how ruthless, dominating, and unrelenting she is when dealing with others. As a result, many frightening stories about Waller are told by those who have encountered her (as a warning), but practically everyone believes them once dealing with her personally. Waller therefore is one of the most feared and respected people in the US government. Eye on metahumans Amanda Waller subsequently through her Director status and skills secretly kept tabs on metahumans in the world as to know whether they are a liability to American Govt or not. After giving an anonymous tip to the Batman,she tried to know who he is and learned his identity.She might also have learned the identity of Superman after the Black Zero Event. She then made files(needs a seperate database WALLER FILES) for every metahuman past and present in the world. Ties with Lex Luthor Amanda Waller is known to have met Lexcorp CEO Lex Luthor on at least one occasion, as he indirectly referred to Waller, ARGUS, and the Task Force X idea, in an interview with Daily Planet journalist Ron Troupe. Lex Luthor in his search for metahumans in return for some off books funding might have helped Amanda Waller and might have some ties with ARGUS. Forming Task Force X Amanda Waller notes that even after his death, Superman still continues to have a profound impact on the world - his alien heritage and usage of his powers for selfless heroism make Superman a beacon of hope and inspiration for metahumans like the Flash, inducing them to more openly use their powers and come out into the light, with the Flash notably apprehending the notorious bank robber Captain Boomerang as a result. Waller herself however, has a much more negative view on metahumans after his death, since while she posthumously respects Superman himself for his benevolence and selflessness, she recognizes that there could very well be other beings out there, beings with equally tremendous godlike power, coupled with far less friendly intentions that could start a potential "World War III". Fearing the inability of humans to stop such beings, Waller promptly advocates for the creation of Task Force X - her own potentially disposable team of individuals with exceptional powers, abilities, and skills, which could be forced to battle against such formidable threats as a contingency, whereas a normal non-disposable human army would be powerless. Recruiting Members Prior to advocating her idea of Task Force X, Waller would order Rick Flag to protect June Moone, the woman who unwillingly hosted the spirit of Enchantress after discovering it in a hand held statue in a cave in the deep forests of Central America. The two would quickly grow close and become lovers, as Waller had intended in order for her to attain leverage over US Colonel Rick Flag as she wants him to be her team's leader for his skills.. In order to ensure Enchantress' cooperation with joining the task force, Waller gains possession of the metahuman's cut-out heart, threatening to kill her if Enchantress refuses to comply with her orders. In order to gain Deadshot for her squad, Waller secretly became a situational ally of Batman, anonymously letting the latter know when and where best to intercept Deadshot (when he is together with his daughter Zoe Lawton), with the Dark Knight successfully carrying it out, having Deadshot imprisoned in Blackgate Penitentiary, with Waller then transferring him to Belle Reve. Batman would also pursue Harley Quinn and her boyfriend Joker (due to them being long-term enemies of his), but the Joker manages to escape, so Batman swiftly incapacitates Harley and drives her to Arkham Asylum, where she is imprisoned, with Waller then promptly transferring her to Belle Reve. Captain Boomerang would be intercepted by the extremely fast metahuman Flash during yet another one of his bank robberies, with Boomerang subsequently getting imprisoned in Central City, and then promptly transferred by Waller to Belle Reve as well. Killer Croc, being another major enemy of Batman's, is repeatedly chased out of Gotham City by the Dark Knight, thus eventually intercepted and tasered into submission by Waller's ARGUS SWAT team, and taken to Belle Reve. Extremely powerful metahuman El Diablo one day unintentionally loses his temper during a family spat, accidentally killing his wife and children with his pyrokinesis. Utterly devastated, El Diablo willingly turns himself in to the Los Angeles authorities, subsequently getting transferred by Waller to Belle Reve. And finally, Slipknot is also subdued, by the mighty Wonder Woman, with Waller gleefully transferring him to Belle Reve. Thus, will all of her potentially unwilling intended Task Force X recruits finally being subdued and locked up within Belle Reve (or as Waller herself describes it, putting them in a hole, with the hole getting thrown away), Waller finally prepares to present her idea to her fellow government officials. Presenting her idea : "Because getting people to act against their own self-interest for the national security of the United States is what I do for a living." : ―Amanda Waller : Waller meets Dexter Tolliver and Admiral Olsen to discuss her Task Force X proposition, giving them a detailed description of all of the candidates. Ultimately, however, Olsen is unsure, appalled at the idea of Waller entrusting homeland security to "witches, gang-bangers, crocodiles, and the Joker's girlfriend." Waller, however, remains adamant, intending on presenting her idea at The Pentagon. Dexter is more supportive of her idea than Olsen. Pentagon presentation :: "What if Superman had decided to fly down, rip off the roof of the White House, and grab the President right out of the Oval Office? Who would have stopped him?" :: ―Dexter Tolliversrc Waller visits the Pentagon, with her idea of Task Force X. Dexter starts by asking the question of if there were any superman level threats and says Amanda has a solution.Admiral Edwards quickly denies and says it can't be authorized under their name.Waller says they run it covertly and if caught quote "We throw them under the bus". Admiral later states that she cant control these people. She then goes to present their abilities most notably enchantress's.Through Moone she asks Enchantress to get the classified documents from Weapons Ministry Vault in Tehran.After the Admiral shocked ,confused and slightly understandable by her abilities,she asks for Moone to be back and slightly stabs the heart of Enchantress to force her to release Moone back. She then says Flag to get her out of the meeting. Dexter then proceeds to authorize Task Force X under the ARGUS program to which the Admiral then reluctantly agrees. Waller thanks him with her program ready for duty. Belle Reve visit Amanda Waller visits Belle Reve prison through a U.S. Sanctioned airplane with Rick Flag and June Moone to have a first look at her task force.They are greeted by Griggs with Griggs greeting Rick Flag with Flag shoving him and saying she's in charge. Griggs then states he's here to assist in anyway her in anyway. Amanda is annoyed with Griggs customary 'greeting the male first' greeting and asks where are they. First she visits Harley Quinn with Quinn asking her if she is the devil to which Waller replies maybe.She then proceeds to El Diablo and shows him the his previous adventures in hopes he returns to his previous violent self as he had surrendered to authorities and secluded himself. Diablo replies he ain't that anymore and that violent guy is dead to which Waller replies he's still here. Flag then asks her to step aside and give a shot to which the answer would probably be NO. She then goes with Flag to see Lawton with Waller playing the "I'M NOT THE BOSS"card due to Lawton's militaristic background and the subsequent consequences with Lawton. Flag under Waller tells Griggs to unlock Lawton to which Griggs disagrees and asks what he know about this guy. Flag says he's here to find out to which Griggs agrees.After unlocking Flag remarks he never missed a shot and tells him to prove it. Waller then bats a eye as in a one time he missed to the Batman. Lawton then proceeds to load the gun and aims at Griggs. Everybody loses their cool including Amanda. Griggs then later states that this is exactly the reason he was against. Griggs then says to his colleague Ames that if he kills him he wants Ames to kill Lawton and delete his browser history. Flag tells Griggs to tell his men to stand down and he subsequently agrees. Lawton states the gun's firing pin is filed down and mag is full of dummy rounds. Amanda comes forward to Lawton and softly soft to him that he's absolutely right and states why would they give a infamous hitman a loaded weapon and tells him to shoot him and empty it which triggers a thinking in him. Griggs tells him to not listen to her and tells him his time with him. Lawton after his thinking casually shoots a bullet in the air and is amused. He then proceeds to have his time and shoots the targets in front of him. Waller is quite amazed and spellbound to know the marksman by his marksmanship. Lawton then turns to Flag and tells his demands.Flag states he's in position to make any demands to which Lawton replies that he was talking to Amanda through him. Lawton then looks her in the eye and says thats his price and Amanda knew something like this was gonna happen. Flag and Waller have a chat in Waller's office with Flag saying he needs soldiers not these scumbags. He goes on to say he can hit the tier one units with a team of pipe hitters who can do anything she can dream of. Waller states that in World War 2,US Navy made a deal with the mafia to protect its ships in the waterfront to which Flag quickly replied that this ain't WW2. She amusingly says that its WW3. Flag realises the situation and asks her what this is all about. She states quote 'need to know' and that he works for him.He says that he won't work for her cause he's got friends and it can be changed with a phone call. She tells him to go ahead without minding her with June Moon strapped to a board in a drug induced coma and lot worse. Flag then realises the warnings from his people and says he didn' believed the stories to which Waller replies that nobody does. Enchantress' escape and Task Force X deployment Waller's fears ultimately prove to be valid, as some time later June Moone involuntarily transforms into the Enchantress during her sleep, subsequently teleporting back to Amanda's house and reaching for her heart but stops after the slight alarm from the suitcase and instead takes her brother's statue to complete her plan. Enchantress then takes him back to Midway City and incapacitates a man in the subway, with Incubus forcing the unwilling human to host him. After the arrival of Incubus and his subsequent destruction of Midway City Train Terminal, the committee quickly mobilises Task Force X under the ARGUS program and military is quickly deployed. Amanda chooses Phase 1 and major contender Enchantress as it is an non human entity.She sends Moon and Flag with Moon's objective of bringing down the non human entity and Flag for supporting Moon and military for backup.The Enchantress quickly gains control of Moon and bolts away.Amanda rips her heart out to which Enchantress takes power from her brother to make up for her heart. As the two mystical metahumans fully build up their powers, they become the incredibly powerful threat than Waller had foreseen, as while Enchantress and Incubus would also, like the Flash, be inspired by Superman to come out into the light, the intentions of this duo are far less benevolent - recalling how they were once worshiped as gods by ancient humans millennia ago, both of them resolve to conquer Earth and subjugate its inhabitants to their will. Immediately after the destruction of Midway City Train Terminal the city is put on high alert and city wide evacuation is initiated. Incubus later takes the fight to the city with the US Military deploying helicopters and more firepower to bring these beings down and fail and after its subsequent failure world wide military is on high alert.Unfortunately, Waller is stuck behind in the city and plan out ways to rescue herself and with the authorization of Task Force X already on; as a result, Waller implements Phase 2 of the Task Force X and gives them the mission of rescuing "HVT1" (H'igh '''V'alue 'T'arget '''1) from within a safe house in the city without revealing the true location of the person. HVT1 Rescue Task Force X equips with Flag and crash land ,arriving city hours later.Amanda is monitoring the team with her team through city cameras. Flag reports that his team is fine and assets are undamaged to which she takes a breath of relief, with Deadshot following into the safe house; he points out that the group was "thinking they're saving Nelson Mandela" because of the trouble they've gone through to get there. Waller executes her staff that remained with her, so as to leave no loose ends ( ERASE THE BRACKET PART RESON NO LOOSE ENDS or increase the number of people in need of protection). Though the group was pissed off to find out she was the person in need of rescue, Waller held off their anger by showing off a remote to detonate their bombs. more to come... Giving Credit Where it's Due : "" :: Freed from Enchantress's doomsday weapon, Waller appeared in front of the squad when they planned to leave back to their old lives. Brandishing the detonator, Waller was challenged by Captain Boomerang; however, she was able to intimidate him into backing off when he implied fighting her for his freedom. When the squad asks for a reward beyond a reduced sentence in prison, Waller relented, allowing Harley an expresso machine, Deadshot visits to his daughter, and giving Croc the B.E.T. televison network to watch. Covering up Midway City Waller contacts Bruce Wayne and meets him at the same restaurant she had earlier met with Admiral Olsen and Dexter Tolliver. Waller asks for Bruce's help in covering up the mess that occurred in Midway City in exchange for all she has on the various Metahumans that are known to her. Waller hands Bruce a file with details on at least June Moone, Barry Allen and Arthur Curry and tells him to stop working 'nights', implying she knows he is Batman. Bruce replies in kind telling her to shut down Task Force X, as he and his 'friends' will do the job for her. Appearance Amanda is a middle-aged African American woman of medium height, sporting an afro hair style. Personality A shrewd woman, Amanda is not above using unorthodox, less than honorable methods to achieve her goals. She takes great pride in her ability to get people to act against their own self-interests. Abilities * Gifted Intelligence: Amanda Waller is exceptionally intelligent and resourceful, which extends to her immensely formidable political science, leadership, tactical, demagogic, investigative, manipulation, hacking, exploitative networking, and leveraging skills. ** Expert Tactician: Amanda Waller, is an immensely skilled manipulative tactician, being effective enough to have built up a fearsome reputation among US government officials. Given her lack of superpowers, Waller, much like Batman, often uses cunning and planning to successfully outwit stronger and more powerful foes, gaining leverage over them rather than simply attempting to out-fight them, often using any of their exploitable weaknesses (such as Enchantress' cut out heart, Rick Flag's love for June Moone, Deadshot's beloved daughter Zoe, and the threat of activating the nano-bombs implanted in the other Suicide Squad members) to her advantage, though Waller's methods are considerably more amoral than Batman's. Due to this, Waller is able to extend her authority over the extremely dangerous Suicide Squad members (something Admiral Olsen and Dexter Tolliver had initially considered impossible), forcing them to battle Enchantress, Incubus, and the mystical duo's monstrous army. By promising Deadshot freedom and a permanent reunion with his daughter Zoe, Waller is almost able to get him to assassinate an escaping Harley Quinn, with him able to resist the extremely tempting offer only with a visible amount of effort. Even when caught off-guard by the Joker when the latter unexpectedly hijacks her ARGUS helicopter, Waller is able to swiftly regain control of the situation, forcing the Joker to retreat by shooting him down. Ultimately however, Waller seems to recognize Batman as a superior tactician, since she turns to him for help in the aftermath of the Midway City events, with Batman promising to protect Waller by covering up her involvement in the events, keeping the wrong people in the US intelligence community from finding out about her one catastrophic error in judgement. ** Expert Political Scientist: Amanda Waller, as a very high-ranking US government official, and the Director of ARGUS, with ties to several other espionage and law enforcement agencies (such as the FBI and CIA), is an extremely skilled political scientist, understanding the inner workings of political structures and their intended goals. Hence, Waller fully understood the paradigm shift that the goals of modern politics took (referring to it as "World War III"), first after the emergence of Superman, then after his subsequent death, and then following the metahumans' emergence, with Waller superbly using this to her own benefit, by having Dexter Tolliver and Enchantress openly address the newfound concerns of politicians, as they addressed the National Security Council in the Pentagon. ** Expert Demagogue: Amanda Waller is a superbly skilled demagogue (though not quite on pair with Lex Luthor), since her intention is to come off as a pioneering altruist concerned with United States national security, so she therefore masterfully appeals to popular desires and prejudices when addressing fellow US government officials, championing the cause of covert metahuman exploitation as a contingency against impending threats of incredible power (like "the next Superman"), with her usage of seemingly rational arguments making Waller's method even more effective. Waller's most notable demagogic demonstration was when she presented her Task Force X sales pitch to the National Security Council, even managing to swiftly convince the adamantly oppositional General Edwards, by demonstrating how valuable Enchantress could be to US national security as an exploitable asset, due to Waller having the perfect leverage over her. ** Expert Networker: Amanda Waller, as a very high-ranking US government official, superbly uses a dense network of professional and social contacts to further her power ambitions. This is notable through her influence of other espionage and law enforcement agencies (like the FBI and CIA), the US army (like General Edwards of the National Security Council), powerful companies (like Wayne Enterprises' Van Criss Laboratories), and certain prisons (like Belle Reve Penitentiary). Hence, Waller is able to discreetly keep tabs on numerous people and things that interest her, was able to get Batman to take down Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and Killer Croc for her, learned the secret identities of at least Batman, Aquaman, and Flash, and was able to transfer inmates that interested her all the way to Belle Reve. However, Waller still needed Batman's direct help in order to prevent the US intelligence community from finding out about her catastrophic error in Midway City. ** Expert Leader: Amanda Waller, as the Director of ARGUS, is a superbly skilled leader, having lead her organization for years, as well as occasionally leading other agencies' operatives (such as some FBI agents while in Midway City), inspiring fierce loyalty from her subordinates. ** Skilled Hacker: Amanda Waller is fairly skilled hacker (though not quite on pair with Batman and Lex Luthor), as she was able to hack and gathered info on the metahumuns on american soil so as to keep tabs on them. * Indomitable Will: Amanda Waller, although she has no metahuman powers, has tremendous determination and strength of will, which make her an extremely formidable opponent. Indeed, her nickname is "The Wall" due to how ruthless, dominating, and unrelenting Waller is when dealing with others, which makes her one of the most feared and respected people in the US government. Hence, when Rick Flag tells her he will accept the consequences of Enchantress' escape, Waller coldly replies that she is his consequence and when Enchantresskidnaps her and demands that Waller reveal the locations of the secret technological facilities of ARGUS, Waller adamantly refuses, emphasizing that she wouldn't break under torture, challenging Enchantress to "do her worst", even fearlessly insulting the latter to her face. Hence, Enchantress is forced to knock out and telepathically assault the mind of Waller to get her way. * Markswoman: Amanda Waller is a highly skilled markswoman (thou not quite on pair with Rick Flag and not nearly on pair with Deadshot), swiftly shooting down some of her FBI subordinates (due to them knowing of her catastrophic error in judgement, the one that made the mystical Midway City incident possible). Appearances *Suicide Blonde *''Suicide Squad'' *Suicide Squad: Behind the Scenes with the Worst Heroes Ever *Suicide Squad (Novel) *''The Suicide Squad'' Trivia * This is Waller's second live action movie appearance, the first being the 2011 film Green Lantern, where she was portrayed by Angela Bassett. This is also her fourth live action appearance overall. ** Waller's first live action television appearance was in the ninth season of the CW series Smallville. Her second live action television appearance was in the CW series Arrow. * Viola Davis stated she is fascinated by the character, singling out her psychology and strength. She describes her as a "powerful black woman, hard, ready to pick up a gun and shoot anyone at will," "relentless in her villainy" and strong in "her intelligence and her complete lack of guilt." External Links * * Category:Suicide Squad Category:The Suicide Squad Category:Suicide Squad characters Category:The Suicide Squad characters Category:Government Category:Characters in the comics Category:Characters without powers Category:Humans Category:Females Category:Americans Category:Suicide Squad members Category:Villains Category:Batman Villains Category:Batman secret keepers Category:Aquaman secret keepers Category:Flash secret keepers Category:Cyborg secret keepers Category:Wonder Woman secret keepers Category:Superman secret keepers